Hey I'm alive :D I'm sorryyy for the long breaks between the chapters, adulthood is kinda stressful lmao
But thank you for 21K reads I'm gonna scream!
(Nah I better don't, I'm writing this on the train and I have 5 hours ahead of me)
By the wayyy I graduated! Never do I have to sit in a classroom again! :D
Well-… instead I have to sit in university. Idk if that's better lol.
Sorry for this chaotic AN, I'm hyped for the chapter.
Thanks to everyone voting and commenting :)
Enjoy!
Clay lost his sense of time as the hours were passing by in the tiny room he was locked in.
His wounds were healing quite fast due to the healers that visited him every now and then, checking his bandages and giving him strange potions to drink.
Only when the little window under the ceiling showed a darker getting sky, he knew that night was coming.
Being lost in his thoughts as he drifted off into sleep and jolted awake just minutes later from noises that did not even exist, stressed him to the point where he just stayed up, staring into a corner of the room until his brain made him see creepy shadows.
He had stopped thinking about the royal family, his power and what they knew about it. Instead a voice in his head was screaming constantly to keep him from thinking too much and driving himself crazy.
Nobody cared to inform him about anything. He was sure the royal family spent more time to look into his DNA and doing research, but he was left in the dark.
He had no idea if his power and his eyes were a mutation or something else.
But did that even matter?
Whatever it was, he would have to live with it and he was sure nobody would let him out of this castle without having power over him.
George did not come to see him either and Clay could not help to feel sad about that. They did not even have to talk, he only wished for someone to just sit in the room with him so he was not completely alone.
After some more minutes or hours, he could not tell, a soft knock on the door made him turn his head.
His heart jumped when he saw George entering the room and closing the door behind him.
"Hi, Clay. Sorry for not seeing you earlier. Fulga found every possible excuse to keep me away and my mother does not approve of me leaving either."
Clay nodded and sat up straight against the wall. As he spoke he noticed his voice was quiet and rough, he did not speak to anyone for who knows how long.
"It's okay. You couldn't get me out of here anyways I guess."
George shook his head.
"Unfortunately I can't. But I wanted to see you again and now you can tell me a bit about your power. It's pretty cool you know? When did you find out you have it? Can you only block off Fulga's power? Do you have Pretiosi relatives?"
Clay laughed hoarsely to cut off the Prince.
"Wait, wait, I have no idea about anything. I didn't even know that I had this power and I have no idea how I did all of that. It's weird."
"Hm." George looked at him for some time.
"They're really confused by your DNA, you know. They've run so many tests but they just don't understand it. It's not a Pretiosi DNA but it's not a Vilis DNA either. They start to think you're an alien."
Clay chuckled.
"Maybe I am."
George raised an eyebrow and smiled. "Don't tell them that, they would be scared for their Empire and put you in a zoo."
With George time seemed to rush by quicker and after a long conversation Clay felt a bit more alive.
His heart ached a little when George announced that he had to leave as it was getting dark again.
No matter how distant Clay felt from the world, George always made him feel a little bit closer.
Maybe he could finally sleep now.
He was floating over the clouds, jumping from one cloud to the next.
Deep down there was the castle, sparkling in the morning sun.
Clay sat down on one of the clouds, tearing off a small piece of it and letting it float in front of him.
Watching the tiny cloud float up and down made him feel like a small child and he laughed.
"Why did you do that?"
Clay spun around at this voice.
George was standing on a cloud that was a little further away, his arms crossed and a disappointed expression on his face.
"Why did you do that?"
He repeated.
"What do you mean?" Clay stood up aswell, holding the little piece of cloud on his hand.
"Everything." George said.
Then he turned around and jumped on a bigger cloud, running away over it.
"Wait!" Clay called but George was already surrounded by more and more clouds, they were getting thicker and slowly changed from a beaming white into a threatening grey.
A strong gust of wind blew strands of his hair in his face, causing him to squint.
He stumbled backwards but his feet just went through the clouds.
He fell, deeper and deeper while the piece of cloud in his hand disappeared into raindrops which flowed down his arm before they turned bright red.
Clay's blurred dreams were interrupted by the door slamming open.
At least three soldiers were standing in the door frame, furiously fixating Clay with their orange beaming eyes.
To his surprise they had guns with them.
"Get up, boy and follow us. Try to run and we will not hesitate to shoot you."
Clay sat on the floor of his room, frozen in shock, still trying to think clearly after just waking up.
What did that mean? Did those soldiers go crazy? Why did the strongest people in the castle need guns?
He slowly got to his feet, eyeing the weapons in the soldiers' hands skeptically.
"Out!" One of them shouted and Clay did not dare to argue.
In silence the three soldiers escorted him out of the room and through the hallways of the castle, several Pretiosi standing in front of the walls to their left and right, following Clay with their eyes.
As they reached one of the moving rooms in which two more soldiers were waiting, Clay realised that the weapons were because of him.
The room moved down and down, apparently not stopping any time soon.
They had to be below the castle already.
Clay was standing in the middle of the room, surrounded by the grumpy looking soldiers, very much aware that one wrong movement could mean his death.
He racked his mind why they lead him through the entire castle. Did they find something in his DNA that could be concerning?
But it struck him very soon when the room finally stopped and an underground dungeon appeared in front of him as the doors opened.
Clay immediately shivered due to the cold which was hanging under the low ceiling.
One of the soldiers pressed his gun against Clay's back, pushing him forward.
To their left and their right there were dozens of small cells. Most of them were empty but every now and then a pair of blue, green or brown eyes fearfully looked at him through the thick bars.
Clay's legs started to hurt, he was not used to walking long distances after laying in a tiny room for several days.
The complex went on and on, straight corridors were leading through the countless amount of cells.
Finally, just before Clay thought about asking for a short stop, they hit a dead end.
Prince George and the Queen were waiting in front of the stone wall.
Clay tried to make eye contact with the Prince, trying to understand a bit more about the situation.
But George's eyes were fixated on a point behind Clay, refusing to look at the Vilis in any way.
"Thank you for your quick service. I will follow you to the conference in a minute."
The Queen said towards the soldiers who were opening the nearest cell and pushing Clay in, making him stumble and nearly fall.
The cell was even smaller than the room he had spent the last days in but as he stood in the middle of it, observing the people on the outside, he felt even more lost.
After some quick words, most of the soldiers walked away, leaving only three soldiers along with the Queen and the Prince.
"How cute, a Vilis who thought he could be a rebel. Who thought he could fight against the greatest Empire this world has ever seen."
The Queen's silver eyes were staring at him furiously.
Clay's eyes widened. They knew. They knew about him and the Rebellion. George knew. Clay tried to push away the feeling of guilt but it did not want to leave.
"We will decide later what will happen to you. Little mirror boy."
Clay winced at the nickname. He looked over to the Prince who was finally making eye contact- but at the same moment Clay wished he would look away.
The expression on George's face made Clay shiver and the pain and disappointment in the Prince's eyes broke his heart.
Both of the royals disappeared through one of the corridors and the remaining soldiers sat down at a table from where they had a view over four lines of cells.
Clay was still standing in the middle of his cell, unable to believe what had just happened.
How everything changed in just a few minutes.
"Clay?"
He winced and quickly looked to the cell on his left where his former ROS was sitting, the arms around his legs.
Darryl was staring at him in shock, then looked down, seeming to be on the verge of tears.
"Darryl! What happened? How did they find out about the Rebellion?"
The older man sighed, slowly standing up and approaching the bars that separated them.
"A group of the Rebellion came to the castle and tried to kidnap George. We nearly got him but then they cut us off in the underground passageways. Most people got away but they caught Karl and me."
Clay looked around as he heard the rebel's name and spotted Karl's emotionless face in a cell a bit further away.
"They looked through my entire office and found some documents which implied that you were spying for the Rebellion. I'm so sorry, Clay."
Clay pressed his lips together, looking up at the ceiling to hold back his tears.
"So you have purple eyes? Looks good on you." Darryl said helplessly.
Clay smiled a bit, aware of the other man's conflict.
"Thanks. Do you know what they are gonna do with us?"
Darryl sighed again.
"According to the Pretiosi rules, the Black Rebellion is a terroristic organisation. And everyone with a connection to such an organisation is supposed to be executed. But maybe we get a different punishment. I don't know."
Clay felt his heart drop as a heavy silence spread over their cells.
Echoing footsteps brought Clay back to reality, making him only realise that his thoughts had drifted off.
His whole body tensed up as he saw the King, followed by George and Fulga.
They stopped at Karl's cell, gave the soldiers at the table a sign and the rebel was escorted down the corridor, obvious fear on his face.
"Where are you taking him?" Clay shouted but he did not get an answer.
Instead the King turned towards Darryl, crossing his arms.
"GDL4, I am very disappointed. We knew that we had a traitor in our castle, but if someone told me it would be you… where did you go wrong? You always were such a loyal servant, supporting our kingdom in any way possible, even gaining enough trust to represent the servants of section G…"
Darryl frowned, disgust on his face.
"Maybe I went wrong where you started to slaughter innocent teenagers."
The King burst out laughing. "Oh GDL4, you know what is neccessary to keep this Empire standing."
"There are several ways to live in peace with the Vilis but you are too scared to lose your power! And I am not a number, my name is Darryl!"
The King smiled slightly. "Oh, I will miss your attitude. Such a shame you will be executed the day after tomorrow, we would have loved to spend some more time with you." The King said mockingly.
Darryl's face went blank.
"E-execute?" He whispered and even Clay felt his throat close up.
Were they serious? He knew that was the common punishment for terrorists, but Darryl and him were not even high members of the Black Rebellion. They only did some side jobs.
"Oh GDL4, don't act surprised. You know the consequences of your actions."
Darryl slowly sat down, burying his face in his hands.
With a grin the King stepped further towards Clay's cell, eyeing him curiously.
The red eyes made the Vilis shiver.
"And you, I'm very sorry to see you die too. Your DNA is very interesting to look at and I hope one day we will understand what is wrong with you. Then we can use your DNA to create little kids with powers like yours, giving us the ultimate weapon against every rebellious Pretiosi. So even though you die, your genetic information will live on. Isn't that great?"
He laughed again.
Fulga stepped to the King's side, looking from him to Clay with a confused expression.
"What do you mean he will die? You're not gonna execute him, right?"
The King turned towards her, surprised.
"Of course he will die. He is a rebel and every rebel in this Empire will be executed. That's the rule."
Fulga let out a short laugh. "You don't want him to fight for us? You have seen his power, how can you kill a person like him?"
George joined the two arguing, putting a hand on Fulga's shoulder.
"Darling, no matter what powers he might have, he is still a terrorists. We execute Pretiosi terrorists too."
Fulga crossed her arms. "So you don't think people can change?"
George snorted, his face emotionless. "Of course I do, but membership in a terroristic organisation is membership in a terroristic organisation. The risk when we let him live is too high. They just tried to kidnap me! I have seen their documents and this boy spied on me for months!"
His voice got louder as he was driven away by emotions.
Fulga shook her head desperately.
"I know, I know, but George! We usually execute grown men. He is just a boy! He doesn't know what he's doing, do you want to kill a teenager?"
George's voice was cold as ice.
"He is not a boy, he's a young man and pretty much aware of his own actions. And now he has to live with the consequences."
Fulga looked helpless.
"And what if the Rebellion know more about genetics than we do? Do you think it's possible they did some genetic experiment with him? What if they found out how to change DNA and now they're forming a giant army of Vilis who are immune to the Pretiosi powers? We need to keep him alive, for our own good!"
The King spoke again, silencing his son and future daughter-in-law.
"However much I admire your mercy, Lady Fulga, rules are rules. And we did not come down here to argue about rules. If you would now follow me to the interrogation of the rebel."
Fulga stared at Clay, a thoughtful look in her eyes. Clay stared back, confused by the woman's behaviour who usually did everything to harm him.
After Fulga, George and the King had disappeared, the soldier Zakin walked by and stepped towards the bars of Clay's cells, squeezing something black and white through them.
Clay hesitantly took the thing, realising that it was Nick's panda plushie.
"Nick wanted me to give you this. He says he misses you a lot and that they're doing their best to get you out of here." Zakin whispered before pretending to check something on the cell door.
Then he turned around and stepped in front of Darryl's cell, quietly exchanging some words with him too.
At least Zakin had not been caught. That gave Clay a little bit of hope.
He wondered what Nick was doing right now. He hoped that his best friend was alright and that he would not get caught aswell by trying to get Karl, Darryl and him out of this castle.
He did not want to die but he also did not want his friends to put themselves in danger because of him.
As Clay pressed the plushie against his chest, he could not hold back the tears anymore.
He would do everything for just a hug from his best friend- and for freedom.
(2856 words)